ArticleJournal of the National Cancer Institute2026
NQO1 as a predictor of response to adjuvant GemCap treatment for pancreatic cancer.
Article in Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Metabolic plasticity in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma progression and response to treatment.Molecular cancer · 2026Review
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24 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundNAD(P)H quinone dehydrogenase 1 (NQO1), a detoxification enzyme regulated by the Nrf2 cytoprotective pathway, is overexpressed in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). NQO1 levels are also influenced by the C609T single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP). We hypothesized that elevated NQO1 would confer chemoresistance in PDAC and predict poor patient outcome.
methodsNQO1 tumor levels and germline C609T SNP status were assessed in archival samples from the European Study Group for Pancreatic Cancer (ESPAC) trials. NQO1 expression (H-score) was treated as continuous for survival regression analyses and dichotomized for visual summaries. Nrf2 or downstream gene induction was assessed in Nrf2 reporter mice or in PDAC cells following exposure to gemcitabine (Gem), 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), or the capecitabine (Cap) metabolite 5-fluoro-5'-deoxyuridine (5'-DFUR). Colony formation following NQO1 depletion was assessed.
resultsNQO1 tumor levels correlated with germline C609T SNP status (P < .001). Contrary to our hypothesis, high NQO1 expression was associated with improved survival in ESPAC-4 patients randomized to GemCap (HR = 0.87 [95% CI = 0.751 to 0.999]; P = .049), and had no association to outcome in the Gem-only treated arm (HR = 0.98 [95% CI = 0.78 to 1.23]; P = .867). Including genotype data did not improve predictive model performance. Neither Gem nor 5-FU induced Nrf2 in vivo. At high concentrations, they suppressed Nrf2/NQO1 in PDAC cells, an effect not mitigated by co-treatment with 5'-DFUR. NQO1 depletion experiments revealed that NQO1 inhibits colony formation. The strongest inhibition was observed when NQO1-positive cells were co-treated with Gem and 5'-DFUR, supporting our clinical data from ESPAC.
conclusionHigh tumor NQO1 predicts better outcome following GemCap therapy.
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